Fighting Poverty

Poverty is the greatest challenge
of our time, writes the Norwegian Prime Minister in his preface to
the plan that is an overall strategy for Norway’s efforts to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Fighting Poverty

The Norwegian Government’s Action
Plan
for Combating Poverty in the South
towards 2015

Executive Summary

"Your hunger is never satiated,
your thirst is never quenched;
you can never sleep
until you are no longer tired."
From Senegal

linkintHoveddel2linkintHoveddel2Preface by the Minister of International
Development

linkintHoveddel3linkintHoveddel3Executive Summary

Preface by the Prime Minister

Poverty is the greatest challenge
of our time.

Poverty is the lack of freedom to
meet one’s basic needs and those of one’s family. Hunger, disease
and vulnerability are today the fate of the 1.2 billion people
living in absolute poverty.

The profound gap between the rich
and the poor is making the world more insecure. Social need and
injustice are indissolubly linked with challenges in areas such as
peace and security, democracy and good governance, human rights and
the environment.

Together with the rest of the UN
member states, we adopted a set of global development goals at the
UN Millennium Summit in autumn 2000. We committed ourselves to
halving world poverty by 2015. We agreed that basic education for
boys and girls, gender equality, health, combating communicable
diseases, environmental concerns and sustainable development should
be the guiding principles for our efforts.

This Action Plan is an overall
strategy for Norway’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals.

Norway will continue to be a
leading player in development policy.

Norway will allocate more to
development, and will seek to persuade other rich countries to do
the same. The Government’s goal is that by 2005, 1 per cent of our
gross national income will be allocated to development
assistance.

At the same time we recognize that
development assistance alone cannot solve the problems of poverty.
The Action Plan therefore extends beyond this. It covers basic
framework conditions such as trade, debt and investment. We will
adjust our other policies in such a way that they do more to combat
world poverty.

The Government also invites the
private sector and civil society to participate in the efforts to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We are looking forward to a
broad-based cooperation in the fight against poverty in the
South.

Kjell Magne Bondevik

Preface by the Minister of
International Development

The presentation of this Action
Plan for Combating Poverty is a happy and very serious
occasion.

The fact that the whole Norwegian
Government is united behind a document that commits us to the fight
against world poverty, across ministerial boundaries and sectoral
interests, is cause for rejoicing. It represents a new departure in
Norwegian politics.

I am also looking forward to its
reception, both in Norway and internationally. Our goal is to use
the plan in the efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals
– the eight goals for development and poverty reduction that the
entire international community has committed itself to achieving.
Imagine if the proportion of people living in absolute poverty were
halved by 2015! I really believe this is possible. Extreme poverty
is a brutal fact of life for far too many people, people like you
and me. It is actually costing millions of innocent people their
lives. Norway, as one of the world’s richest countries, has a moral
responsibility to take an active part in the fight against
poverty.

Now you will understand why I call
this a serious occasion. We have no more time to waste. Development
policy is all about letting children grow up, about realizing
fundamental rights such as education, health and codetermination,
about giving the individual the opportunity to choose how he or she
wants to live. It is really about expanding people’s choices, or
their freedom. This is a serious matter. This means that
development policy is not an esoteric hobby for enthusiasts or a
sideshow on the margins of our "real" foreign policy. It is not an
indulgence that allows us to ignore world poverty in our other
policies. If nothing else, 11 September taught us that conditions
in other parts of the world also concern us. We cannot stick our
heads in the sand like ostriches.

This Action Plan is a broad-based
guide to development policy. It covers fundamental framework
conditions for development, such as trade, investment and debt. It
describes how we will use our economic aid in development
cooperation with the individual country. It outlines how we will
cooperate with international organizations, with the private sector
and with civil society to combat poverty. It also describes what
the Government will do to ensure coordination and consistency
between development policy and Norwegian policies in other areas
such as energy, fisheries, education and trade. In this way
Norwegian policies will combat poverty in the South in a broad
range of areas.

But the authorities in the
developing countries must also keep their own house in order. It is
they who must live with poverty and who must create conditions that
will enable people to extricate themselves from poverty. It is they
who must improve the management of public and natural resources,
who must develop good operating parameters for business, investment
and trade, who must pass laws that provide security of life and
property for all, and who must enforce them.

We will help to ensure that these
goals are achieved. We will give priority to supporting countries
with good poverty strategies and concrete plans to strengthen
important preconditions for development, such as democracy, the
rule of law and effective public management. We will attach
importance to the will to combat corruption and improve the
framework conditions for agriculture and other industries. We will
support efforts to promote gender equality, education, health and
the fight against hiv/aids.

One hundred and eighty countries
have endorsed the UN Millennium Declaration, and have thus
committed themselves to doing what they can to achieve the concrete
goals for poverty reduction. The present Action Plan is a guide to
Norway’s contribution to this effort. It is intended as a "living"
plan, which we will adjust as necessary up to 2015. We therefore
call for comments, suggestions, criticism, dialogue – all such
contributions will be welcomed because they will help to make the
plan a good tool for us all to use.

With this Action Plan the
Government has taken an important step. The next steps will be even
more important. The years up to 2015 will show whether we and
succeeding governments are able to realize these ambitions.

Hilde F. Johnson

Executive Summary

Why do we need an Action Plan
against poverty?
There are several reasons.

The first reason is that poverty is still the greatest
global challenge. There are more than a billion people in the world
living in extreme poverty.

Norway, as one of the richest
countries in the world, has an obligation to take this challenge
seriously. Poverty is an attack on human dignity. It is morally and
politically intolerable that basic human rights are being violated
in such a massive and constant way. Poverty has complex roots and
is in itself complex. It therefore challenges us in many political
areasand it challenges us intellectually. This Action Plan is the
Norwegian Government’s answer to these challenges.

The second reason is that we have actually vowed to
eradicate poverty. In setting the Millennium Development Goals all
UN members have committed themselves to making a sustained effort
to do this. The Action Plan says something about how
we plan to achieve this target. The most significant
milestone along this road is the year 2015. By then the world’s
nations have agreed that the proportion of humans living in extreme
poverty or with hunger must be halved compared with the proportion
in 1990. This is an ambitious target, but we can achieve it.

The third reason is that we have acquired new knowledge
and experience. Our understanding of what promotes and hinders
development has increased immensely. Internationally a broader
consensus than ever is emerging on this among actors in the field
of development policy. This Action Plan builds on documentation
from the World Bank, from the International Monetary Fund, from the
many organizations, funds and programmes of the UN, from the OECD,
from governments in developing countries and from research by
independent institutions.

The Action Plan itself does not
purport to break new ground in terms of analysis. It seeks instead
to build on a synthesis of the knowledge we and others have
acquired. This deepened understanding shows that there is a need to
adjust our course in certain areas. But it also shows that
Norwegian development policy over the last ten years has been
mainly on the right track.

We will use the Action Plan to
confirm what we have done right and to find out where there is a
need for adjustment and which direction we should take in the
future. As conditions in the world and our perception of them will
continue to change, we must always be flexible. We must avoid using
yesterday’s methods to deal with today’s challenges.

This is why we call it a "living
plan". When the national and international debate on development
issues shows that fundamental changes have taken place, we will
revise the plan. And we will do this in the same spirit as that in
which we developed it. We shall draw on the experience of poor
countries, of our international development and alliance partners
and of our partners in Norway.

The Action Plan points to a number
of key challenges that call for a response from us.

Development assistance is inadequate. It
must be increased substantially. Debt relief arrangements must also
be improved. The World Bank has estimated that development
assistance today is about half of what is required to cover the
needs of developing countries for capacity-building and
infrastructure. A substantial increase in the annual investment in
health would probably give a yield many times greater than the
original investment in 2015. It has also been shown that investment
in tropical agriculture has declined dramatically over the last 20
years. A number of other agencies have shown how great the needs
are in their respective areas. Any visit to a developing country
shows that they are right. Assistance is particularly urgently
needed for the 49 least developed countries, which attract little
international investment and have little capacity for generating
equity capital for investment.

The Action Plan confirms that it is our goal to
increase development assistance to 1 per cent of GNI by 2005. We
also urge other OECD/DAC members to increase their shares
substantially. We intend to channel at least 40 per cent of total
Norwegian bilateral assistance to the least developed countries.
The Norwegian Government will also intensify its efforts to improve
the international debt relief systems.

Development assistance alone cannot lift
a country out of poverty. Other aspects of industrialized
countries’ policies often have much greater impact on the situation
in poor countries than assistance does. The multilateral trading
system and the system for debt relief should be improved. There is
also a need to establish a system of rules and regulations for
investment. We, on our part, must seek to ensure that our trade,
agriculture, energy and immigration policies are consistent with
our development policy.

The Norwegian Government has therefore decided to review
certain aspects of its policies with a view to achieving the best
possible coherence between development policy and other policy
areas. In addition we will urge other rich countries to improve
market access for products from developing countries, and do what
we can to reduce barriers to trade. We will also assist the poorest
countries in making better use of the existing opportunities in
world markets.

The international community must listen
more carefully to the voice of the developing countries.
Rich countries dominate the international economic cooperation
organizations: the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, the OECD and so
on. The voting systems largely follow the size of members’ capital
contributions. These organisations work and have advantages that
should be retained, not least as regards ensuring access to capital
for developing countries. However, they do not always work to the
benefit of the poor countries. It is important to promote measures
that can rectify this, especially in the area of trade. This also
applies to environmental issues.

The Action Plan recognizes this and states that
Norway will seek to develop and improve various aspects of the
international organizations so that the interests of poor countries
are better served.

Development and poverty eradication are
impossible without peace and security of life and property.
Conflict is an obstacle to ordinary economic and social activity in
a society, among other things because it undermines opportunities
for long-term investment. If poverty does not directly lead to
conflict, war and terror, it helps create a breeding ground for it
and an increased risk of its breaking out. Thus, poor countries can
easily become the source of problems that spread to other parts of
the world.

The Action Plan states that Norway will help
reduce conflicts and create conditions that prevent them from
starting in the first place. The plan also stresses the need to
secure the interests of civilians in the transition process from
conflict to normal life. Often the possibilities for political and
economic reform in the interests of development are best
immediately after conflicts have been resolved. Such opportunities
must be exploited.

Growth must be increased. In many
countries economic growth is well below population growth. To
correct this development assistance, but first and foremost private
investment, is needed. In many poor countries the primary
industries are essential for development. Countries that give
priority to agriculture and other primary industries must be given
sufficient support for these activities. Access to energy is also
of crucial importance, and Norway is in a good position to support
countries that give priority to this sector. There is a general
need in many countries for better governance to attract investment.
There is also a need for measures to mobilize the considerable
resources which poor people have access to but often cannot utilize
due to a lack of basic and formalized rights. This applies to civil
and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural
rights – including the right to own property and to engage in
economic activity.

Norway will actively seek to stimulate
investment in poor countries and contribute to better framework
conditions that will promote the investment of both local and
international capital.

Recipient responsibility must be
strengthened, governance improved and corruption combated.
The conditions for growth and development are far from good in many
developing countries. In countries where corruption is endemic and
governance – both in the political and in the administrative sense
– is poor, national and international investors will stay away. And
the poor are the ultimate losers. Good governance is a precondition
for development. This is something we wish to promote.

The Action Plan emphasizes the importance of
good governance. This goal is to be pursued among other things by
providing assistance for capacity-building. Countries that are
willing and able to improve governance will in general be given
priority when we allocate government-to-government assistance. In
countries with poor governance, channels other than the official
ones will be given preference, channels that reach the poor and
support the forces of reform. The strengthening of public and other
"watchdogs", like the auditor general, ombudsman systems, civil
society, political parties, and a free press will be given
priority.

The war on poverty is about promoting
human rights. This isan ethical and an altruistic project,
but promoting human rights is much more that that. It is also about
creating conditions that promote the sustainable development of
societies both locally and globally. It is about giving the
population the opportunity to create a better society and to
function well within it. Poor people must therefore be empowered to
make positive changes in their situation. In many poor countries
such conditions are absent. The human rights of the poor are
particularly inadequately protected. This applies to children’s
rights, both in war and in normal situations, it applies to women,
who are systematically oppressed in many countries, and it applies
to the most vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and the
disabled. Human rights must be an inseparable part of the
development process, because development is precisely about
realizing the freedoms and possibilities implied in the concept of
human rights. This is especially evident in the present context,
where the focus is on the poorest.

Hence, the Action Plan strongly emphasizes that human rights
must be an integral part of Norwegian development policy. The
rights of the most vulnerable groups will be given special
attention, both at country level and in international fora.

Developing countries must be given back
control over their own development. Development agencies
have for far too long unempowered their cooperation partners by
doing their work for them or ignoring their wishes. At the same
time the lack of coordination of donors’ efforts has led to serious
administrative problems in many countries. Industrialized countries
must leave the implementation and coordination of measures to the
partner countries themselves, so that they can acquire real
ownership of their challenges and tasks.

The Action Plan states that Norway will continue
to scale down project assistance and to increase the proportion of
sector programme and budget support. At the same time we will seek
to improve public financial management, control and surveillance
systems and other key administrative processes in the partner
countries. Our assistance will be based on the country’s own
development and poverty strategy. This means that partner
governments will be given the opportunity to control the
development process, which will make it realistic for both donors
and actors in these countries, and especially the voters, to hold
the government accountable for results.

We must forge alliances to combat poverty.
Alliances between countries in the North with similar views on
development policy are necessary both in international fora and in
relation to partner countries. It is particularly important to seek
to persuade international organizations to base their activities on
the development and poverty reduction perspectives expressed in the
Action Plan. Similar alliances with countries in the South are also
important so that we can stay in touch with crucial issues. We are
also working to further develop our alliances with Norwegian NGOs,
other public bodies and the private sector.

The Action Plan states that Norway will continue
to promote such alliances and use them actively to promote the
development agenda internationally. In this connection Norway will
convey a consistent message in bilateral dialogues with partner
countries and in international organizations and fora. Alliances
with Norwegian partners will be further developed.

Education and health are to be promoted.
HIV/AIDS must be combated. When a large part of the
population is illiterate, weakened by HIV/AIDS and other diseases,
and has neither income nor property, this hinders economic and
social development. Education is perhaps the most important
precondition for development. Without education, the state receives
less income that can secure basic social services, costs are high
and the private sector has less access to the human and economic
resources it needs. Investment in education and health is one of
the most effective measures we have for combating poverty.

The Action Plan particularly emphasizes efforts
to improve education, through the dialogue on national poverty
strategies, through development assistance and through support for
international organizations working in these fields. Norway will
play a pro-active role in these efforts. This also applies to
health. We will help combat HIV/AIDS and diseases such as malaria
and tuberculosis by strengthening the health sector at national
level so that as many people as possible receive the help they
need. We will also support preventive measures, awareness raising
and information activities, and treatment facilities, in line with
the countries’ own strategies. We will actively seek to ensure that
the donor community coordinates its efforts in the fight against
deadly epidemics and we will promote improved cooperation with the
private sector.

A sound environmental policy is in the
interests of the poor. The poor are often those who are most
affected by local and global environmental degradation, such as
climate change or pollution of air and drinking water. Thus it is
often the poor who benefit most from improvements in living
conditions resulting from measures that prevent and reduce
pollution and help to maintain ecological functions. Sound
environmental and resource management prevents a worsening of the
living conditions of vulnerable groups. This applies especially to
indigenous peoples.

Norway will continue to stress the importance of
implementing measures to combat climate change in international
fora. We will seek to ensure the equitable utilization of regional
water resources and in our dialogue with our partner countries we
will emphasize the importance of sustainable environmental and
resource management. We will offer to assist in strengthening such
management, especially as regards water resources and energy and in
cases where this will improve living conditions for the poor.

Donors must be willing to be coordinated
by partner countries. They must also cooperate more closely
among themselves. The form of national poverty strategies and the
accompanying processes now require donors to rethink their
planning. There is no need any more for the long, elaborate and
donor centered planning documents of the past. Donors should rather
make short business plans to consider how they can put their
technical and economic resources to the best possible use, while
taking account of the other actors. This applies to all donors,
public, non-government and private. The UN and the World Bank will
be key instruments in this coordination. NGOs must have an active
and constructive attitude to this coordination process, although
they will continue to have their own agendas, principles and
functions. Coordination in line with national poverty strategies
presupposes an active dialogue in which partners from the North
express themselves clearly about the strengths and weaknesses of
the strategies and about what they can and cannot finance.

The Action Plan states that national poverty
strategies are to be taken seriously. Development assistance and
other measures must be guided by these strategies. Activities that
are not based on these strategies are to be phased out of
cooperation programmes, unless there are special reasons for
continuing with them. We will use our positions on the boards of
international organizations like the IMF, the World Bank and UN
agencies to insist that poverty strategies must be drawn up and
implemented by the partner countries themselves.

Results must be measured. The UN will monitor
progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The OECD/DAC
will hold members accountable for coordinating their policies so as
to make them more effective in the fight against poverty. It is
important to recognize, however, that poverty reduction takes a
long time and happens gradually. It is therefore necessary to
measure short-term progress to make sure we are on the right track.
In order to do this, better indicators and statistical capacity
will have to be developed in developing countries.

Norway will therefore contribute to the
international cooperation on the development of intermediary
indicators for measuring and reporting on short- and medium-term
progress in the war on poverty. In this connection we will also
help to develop indicators that make Norway’s contributions more
visible. If little progress is being made towards the specific
Millennium Development Goals, Norway will advocate more intensified
efforts in all relevant fora.

* * *

The Action Plan is a basis for both
political action and practical implementation. Like development
policy itself, the Action Plan must have a broad agenda so that it
covers all the issues that are necessary to bring about positive
and sustainable development. A considerable number of the measures
mentioned in the Action Plan must be carried out if we are to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals. This does not mean,
however, that Norway should do it all or be active in every field.
We are one of many actors. But we have clear views on what should
be done and we intend to state them in all relevant contexts.

The Action Plan sets out tasks and
priorities at the strategic level. Assigning priorities and
implementing the many essential measures will be done through the
partner countries’ own poverty strategies. It is our development
partners who own the challenges and it is they who must play the
main part. The role of the industrialized countries is to
contribute advice and resources.